Eric Kent ‘Stiling’ Russian River, CA   

TASTING NOTES

As the heart of our ever-popular Luke’s Grove bottling, Stiling Vineyard never fails to provide delicious, classic Russian River character with a floral Rued clone twist. For the mightily structured 2018 vintage we wanted to see how much we could coax out of it and layer into it with a little more oak and an extended nap in barrel.

32 months later (roughly double the time afforded to our regular Chardonnay) we bottled the utterly gorgeous, unabashedly old school results unfiltered and with a bare minimum of sulfur. All this extra time in barrel produced our most sumptuous Russian River Chardonnay to date.

Golden straw colored in the glass, this full bodied and utterly luscious wine satisfies the palate completely. Wonderfully rich, it’s loaded with roasted apple and stone fruit flavors wrapped in caramel, clove and nutmeg followed by a long and fresh lemon oil finish. Barrel contributions are (perhaps counterintuitively) super well integrated after all those months to harmonize. The long, slow exposure to tiny amounts of oxygen has been the transformative element, beautifully polishing and knitting everything together into one seamless flow.

Normally it would take many years in your cellar for a wine to achieve this development, yet there’s plenty of freshness and structure to allow further evolution. Reach for this one when you want something truly special.

DRINKING WINDOWS

Prime drinking: Mid 2022 through 2027
Graceful ageability: 2028+

VINEYARDS

96% Stiling, 4% Green Acres

CLONES

96% Rued, 4% Hyde

STATS

pH: 3.42  |  TA: 6.2 g/L  |  Alcohol: 14.2
Bottling: June 7, 2021  |  Release: Spring 2022
Cases Produced: 131